Fellas, let's focus on what's most important: People are celebrating Poe in 2009!
The little bio they included was a single paragraph (borrowed, by the way, from his Wikipedia article, which I wrote). Very few causes of death were mentioned... but, then again, it's a very, very minor overview. Don't take it personally.
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It was night in the lonesome October, of my most immemorial year.
He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.
This needs to be said more often. Poe was not some sob-sister poet maudit. He earned his living through writing, and, as both writer and editor, he was often extremely successful. The positive needs to be pointed up more.
I was a little disappointed, however, when, in that same bio, they listed the possible causes of Poe's death and did not include 'murder.' This easily tops the list of possible causes.
Radiotheater NYC presents performances of SEVENTEEN different Poe works throughout 2009. The web site doesn't say much about the adaptations, but the schedule will be one per month, including "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Pit and the Pendulum," "Morella," "Berenice" (yay!), "The Premature Burial," "William Wilson" - and even two poems, "The Raven" and "Annabel Lee."
This sounds pretty exciting - I hope they do a good job with it, especially those poems (how do they become full-length plays?).
Feel free to comment on their selections too. And if anyone gets to see one, let us know how it was!
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It was night in the lonesome October, of my most immemorial year.